Gov. Chris Christie: War on drugs is 'a failure'

View full sizeChip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesGov. Chris Christie speaks at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Monday.

Gov. Christie has a harsh view on the 40-year-old war on drugs: It doesn't work.

"The war on drugs, while well-intentioned, has been a failure," the Republican governor said Monday during a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, according to a report by the Huffington Post.

"We're warehousing addicted people every day in state prisons in New Jersey, giving them no treatment."

Christie's comments come after New Jersey lawmakers passed legislation recently that institutes a year of mandatory treatment for first-time, nonviolent drug offenders in lieu of jail time. The program is set to be activated in at least three counties during its first year and will expand across the state over the next five years.

"If you're pro-life, as I am, you can't be pro-life just in the womb," Christie said, according to the report. "Every life is precious and every one of God's creatures can be redeemed, but they won't if we ignore them."

He also argued that it makes economic sense.

"It costs us $49,000 a year to warehouse a prisoner in New Jersey state prisons last year," Christie said, according to the report. "A full year of inpatient drug treatment costs $24,000 a year."